A Choice
by NCISfan with Tivafever
Summary: One-Shot, set in Season 3, Kill Ari: Part II. What was running through Ziva's mind when she killed Ari? Where did her allegiance lie - with Gibbs or her father, Eli David? PLEASE read and review!


**SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2/3.**

**A/N: Hi, this is my second NCIS fanfic. I actually wrote this one-shot a few months ago but forgot about it until now.**

**It's about what Ziva was thinking before she killed her half-brother, Ari. I don't think the show really addressed it, and this is what I think would have happened.**

**Anyways, enough of the rambling...here ya go!**

**_[Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters.]_**

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><p>Ziva sat behind the doorway to the basement below.<p>

'Just another mission.' she told herself.

'Just another target.'

She hopelessly tried to believe that if she said it enough times she could convince herself.

But it wasn't just another target, it was her half brother. Her half brother that she been ordered to kill.

She felt conflicted because no matter about the wrong things he had or hadn't done, he was still family and still her flesh and blood. She had realised over the years as her family disintegrated around her, that family was precious and something to be protected. He was the last sibling she had left, even if he was just a half.

But her father's words replayed in her mind. "Gibbs' trust is what we need, you must save his life by killing Ari. Do whatever it takes."

It was an direct order.

But did he realise that she would have to choose between her family and a stranger?

All her life, Ziva had tried to please her father and to make him proud of her. Her earliest memory was of him blindfolding her then leading her into the heart of a forest, which she had to found her way out of. At that early and tender age, she followed all his instructions because she wanted to revel in his praise just like any child would want to do.

He did praise her but at the same time, it felt like she had disappointed him or not done enough. She tried to exceed her best in all the challenges he set her, and waited for the day he would say how proud he was of her. Just like she had patiently waited for him to go to her ballet recitals, but each time she was fed an empty promise that he'd be there. She still remembered the feeling of bitter rejection and disappointment, after desperately scanning the audience for his face in vain.

However, as she got older, the truth sunk in and she recognised his empty promises. She realised that he was just training her to be a soldier, just another one of his pawns. She began to hear the hollowness in his faked appraisals; they held no genuine love or pride, just the sound of obsession and greed.

She shook her head, reprimanding herself for getting distracted.

She listened to the scene unfolding below.

_Ari: "I want you to know, I wish I hadn't had to shoot Caitlin." _

_Gibbs: "Why did'ya?"_

_Ari: "To cause you pain."_

_Gibbs: "I piss you off that much?"_

_Ari: "Not you. My father."_

'Our father', Ziva thought bitterly to herself.

She knew she would have to make an impossible choice.

To follow orders and kill her brother in order to gain Gibbs' trust, or to do nothing and jeopardize a key mission for Mossad and face her father's wrath and possibly the termination of her career?

She knew what the repercussions of each choice would be. But she had a choice to end being the puppet, with her strings being pulled by her father. She had the opportunity to become the person she wanted to be, rather than the person that had been created.

Her heart sunk with the weight of the decision that sat on her shoulders.

But she knew what the inevitable answer was, and in that same second she knew that she had never had a choice.

Ziva quietly took the gun from the holster on her hip.

She edged closer to the side of the door frame and looked down. The scene below came into view. A grey haired older man conversing with a young man armed with a rifle.

She lifted her gun and adjusted her position to aim the weapon at her target's head.

Her finger rested lightly on the trigger and despite the years of training and experience, her heart rate quickened in anticipation of the shot.

The grey haired man stood with his back to her, the younger man facing her.

His body language and position exuded control and a confidence, which bordered on arrogance.

_Ari: "I need you to commit suicide with your own rifle. You never did give me enough credit in our game. I knew it was a trap before Ziva told me you asked her to cover you, you'd never trust Ziva. And you need to kill me, to taste the sweetness of revenge." _

The young man lifted his rifle pointing it straight at the older one.

The older man may have tried to appear calm and confident, but Ziva could see the tension and anticipation in his body, a realisation perhaps that this was the end, that there was no way out.

_Gibbs: "I've killed enough men in my life Ari, it's gonna be just as sweet watching you die."_

Her finger started to slowly squeeze the trigger and she started to feel hesitation. But it was too late, there was no going back now.

_Ari: "Sorry to spoil your-"_

She took the shot.

And with a crack that echoed around the room, the man fell to the floor.

She moved into the doorway, revealing her position before slowly and numbly walking down the stairs to the body.

She looked down at the man lying dead before her feet, her half brother, tears pooling in her eyes, threatening to break her composure. It just showed that no matter how much her father had tried to strip away her emotion and humanity, it would forever remain.

She could feel the watching eyes of the older man on ever her shoulder but ignored them.

Her eyes transfixed on the bullet hole that was in the exact middle of her brother's forehead.

She clasped her hands, before beginning to sing the mourning prayer that was sadly familiar to her.

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><p><strong>AN: I hope you liked it. :) Please review! :D**

**Also check out my other story called "Uncharted Waters" if you haven't already! :)**

**See ya! **


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